Professor Ying Sun receives the 2026 ENVR Distinguished Achievement Award 3 min read · Sun, May 17 2026 Awards News spatio-temporal statistics environmental applications computational statistics Professor Ying Sun has received the 2026 ENVR Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and the Environment.
KAUST researchers define the emerging field of high-performance statistical computing (HPSC) 4 min read · Sun, Dec 14 2025 News exascale GPU HPC mixed-precision computing Statistical computing KAUST researchers outline a new discipline for statistical computing at supercomputing scale.
Professor Ying Sun elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association 3 min read · Tue, Apr 22 2025 News spatio-temporal statistics Environmental Statistics computational statistics Ying Sun joins the elite ranks of ASA Fellows in 2025 for her contributions to spatial statistics, mentoring and global outreach.
KAUST wins the “Nobel” of high-performance computing for climate modeling 1 min read · Fri, Nov 22 2024 News Clip News HPC climate projections extreme computing computational simulations uncertainty quantification KAUST has been awarded the “Nobel" prize of high-performance computing—the ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modelling—in partnership with the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, U.S. and other partner institutions.
Finer forecasting to improve public health planning 1 min read · Wed, Jul 31 2024 News Clip News A method for forecasting high-dimensional functional time series could improve the accuracy of mortality predictions across multiple populations.
Neural networks give deeper insights 2 min read · Wed, Nov 22 2023 News A "deep" many-layered neural network does the heavy lifting in calculating accurate predictions from large complex environmental datasets.
Deep neural networks that “get” spatial dependence 2 min read · Mon, Nov 7 2022 News A deep-learning technique could offer accurate large-scale predictions in the field of geospatial statistics.
Can machine learning help predict disease spread? 1 min read · Sun, Apr 17 2022 News human health machine learning statistics Machine learning techniques can provide accurate forecasting of the spread of viruses during pandemics. Under the supervision of Ying Sun and Fouzi Harrou, Yasminah Alali developed an approach that removes human bias and assumptions, predicting pandemic evolution more accurately.
SRSI student success story at Ibdaa 2022 2 min read · Sun, Mar 20 2022 Awards News environmental applications data analysis computational methods Faisal Fadi Hasan Almulla, who worked last year under the mentorship of Dr. Fouzi Harrou and Professor Ying Sun as part of the annual KAUST Saudi Research Science Institute (SRSI) summer program, won two awards at the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity — Ibdaa 2022.
Deeper defense against cyber attacks 1 min read · Sun, Nov 28 2021 News cybersecurity machine learning Deep learning statistics To address the growing threat of cyberattacks on industrial control systems, a KAUST team including Fouzi Harrou, Wu Wang and led by Ying Sun has developed an improved method for detecting malicious intrusions.
Meet KAUST new student: Qilong Pan 1 min read · Wed, Oct 13 2021 News spatio-temporal statistics Deep learning Qilong Pan is a statistics graduate who joined KAUST in June 2021 from the Wuhan University of Technology, China. Pan is a M.S./Ph.D. student and member of the Environmental Statistics research group under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun.
Trio of tuning tools for modeling large spatial datasets 1 min read · Thu, Aug 12 2021 News big data Environmental Statistics statistics Statistical tools help fine-tune the parameters and approximations of models used to make sense of large spatial datasets.
Dr. Harrou receives two IEEE ECBIOS 2021 best paper awards 2 min read · Tue, Aug 10 2021 News renewable energy systems Deep learning Dr. Fouzi Harrou, a research scientist in the KAUST Environmental Statistics (ES) group, recently received two IEEE Eurasia Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Healthcare and Sustainability 2021 (IEEE ECBIOS 2021) best paper awards.
Mixing precision for model acceleration 1 min read · Mon, Jul 26 2021 News extreme computing supercomputing big data statistics A mixed-precision approach for modeling large geospatial datasets can achieve benchmark accuracy with a fraction of the computational run time.
Introducing "THE FANTASTATISTICS 4" 1 min read · Thu, Apr 15 2021 News Introducing KAUST’s very own "THE FANTASTATISTICS 4." Gaurav Agarwal, Jian Cao, Wanfang Chen, and Yuxiao Li are four Ph.D. alumni from the Statistics program at KAUST. The four students obtained their Ph.D.s last year under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun, Agarwal and Li, and Distinguished Professor Marc Genton, Cao and Chen, respectively.
KAUST Ph.D. Student Gaurav Agarwal wins ASA SCSG and ENAR Student Paper Awards 2 min read · Sun, Feb 14 2021 Awards News Spotlight Gaurav Agarwal, a Ph.D. candidate in statistics and member of KAUST Associate Professor Ying Sun's Environmental Statistics (ES) research group, recently won an American Statistical Association (ASA) Student Paper Award sponsored by the Sections on Computing and Graphics (SCSG). In addition to his ASA SCSG award, Agarwal has also been selected a Distinguished Student Paper Award winner by the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric Society for his paper titled "Flexible Quantile Contour Estimation for Multivariate Functional Data: Beyond Convexity."
Modeling rainfall drop by drop 1 min read · Sun, Dec 20 2020 News water security Environmental Statistics statistics A high-frequency model developed using data from new high-precision rain gauges gives fresh insight into the dynamics of rain and runoff events.
KAUST STAT students come together for second ASA chapter meeting 2 min read · Thu, Dec 3 2020 News statistics data science Members of the KAUST American Statistical Association (ASA) student chapter recently came together for the group’s second online meeting held on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. The meeting served as an orientation exercise for new KAUST Statistics (STAT) Program students while also highlighting the shared experience of STAT Ph.D. candidates: Jian Cao, Wanfang Chen, Yuxiao Li, and Gaurav Agarwal.
Deep learning in the emergency department 1 min read · Sun, Nov 22 2020 News machine learning artificial intelligence statistics human health Harnessing the power of deep learning leads to better predictions of patient admissions and flow in emergency departments.
Today we celebrate World Statistics Day! 1 min read · Tue, Oct 20 2020 News statistics healthcare Let’s discover the world of the statisticians at KAUST and be ready to be amazed by their cutting-edge research!
KAUST Environmental Statistics group publishes book exploring multivariate statistical analysis 2 min read · Tue, Oct 20 2020 News Deep learning statistics machine learning The KAUST Environmental Statistic (ES) research group has recently published a book titled "Statistical Process Monitoring Using Advanced Data-Driven and Deep Learning Approaches." The book is the outcome of the Core Research Grant (GRG) project led by KAUST Professor Ying Sun, Associate Professor of Statistics.
Meet KAUST prospective student: Pratik Nag 1 min read · Tue, Sep 15 2020 News machine learning artificial intelligence Pratik Nag will join KAUST this fall as a Ph.D. candidate and member of the KAUST Environmental Statistics research group under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun. Pratik holds a master's degree in statistical quality control and operation research, and a bachelor's degree in statistics, from the Indian Statistical Institute and the University of Calcutta, India.
Meet KAUST prospective student: Cristian Felipe Jiménez Varón 2 min read · Sun, Aug 16 2020 News Statistical Modeling Environmental Statistics Cristian Felipe Jiménez Varón is an applied mathematics graduate who will join KAUST from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Manizales (UNAL), Colombia. He also holds dual bachelor's degrees in industrial engineering and chemical engineering fromUNAL .
Meet KAUST Prospective Student: Amin Wu 1 min read · Sun, Jul 5 2020 News Gaussian processes spatio-temporal statistics Amin Wu is a 24-year-old graduate who will join KAUST from the Communication University of China. Wu will join the University in the fall of 2020 as an M.S./Ph.D. candidate in the KAUST Environmental Statistics Research Group under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun. Wu wants to be a teacher or researcher and use her expertise and knowledge to make the world a better place.
CEMSE Division student spotlight: Gaurav Agarwal 2 min read · Thu, Apr 16 2020 News spatial statistics Environmental Statistics Gaurav Agarwal firmly believes in the age-old adage that patience is a virtue. Without patience, life’s challenges cannot be overcome, and a steadfast belief in perseverance has served the statistics Ph.D. student well throughout his academic career.
Pop stats for big geodata 1 min read · Mon, Feb 24 2020 News climate change statistics A universal high-performance computing interface allows popular statistical tools to run efficiently on large geospatial datasets.
Gaurav Agarwal wins IISA best student paper award 2 min read · Sun, Jan 19 2020 News Spotlight IISA Award Gaurav Agarwal, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in KAUST Associate Professor Ying Sun’s Environmental Statistics (ES) research group, recently won the best student paper award at the International Indian Statistical Association (IISA) 2019 Student Paper Competition for his paper titled “Bivariate Functional Quantile Envelopes with Application to Radiosonde Wind Data.”
Using Statistical Models to Solve Environmental Problems 1 min read · Wed, Jan 15 2020 Spotlight News spatio-temporal statistics computational methods Joining the faculty of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) six years ago gave statistics Professor Ying Sun a unique career opportunity: the chance to build and lead her own research group solving real-world problems.
2019 Statistics and Data Science Workshop 1 min read · Wed, Dec 11 2019 News data science statistics From November 18 to 20 the KAUST CEMSE Division has hosted the 2019 Statistics and Data Science Workshop. The workshop, organized by Workshop Chair Professor Ying Sun from the KAUST Environmental Statistics Group, featured 17 keynote talks from eminent data science researchers from Asia, Europe, North America and on-campus. Talks included: personalized recommendation by learning from heterogeneous graph data; dynamic spatial panel models; networks, common shocks, and sequential exogeneity; unbiased Markov chain Monte Carlo, plus many more.
Testing barley's salt tolerance is a numbers game 1 min read · Mon, Dec 2 2019 News salinity tolerance statistics future food Factors influencing the tolerance of barley to saline soils have been uncovered using an advanced robust statistical technique.
3 Faculty Positions in Statistics 2020 at KAUST 2 min read · Tue, Oct 1 2019 News statistics The 3 faculty positions are in the Statistics Program (http://stat.kaust.edu.sa) within the Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division. Currently, the Statistics Program has 7 core faculty and 10 affiliated faculty. We are primarily interested in applicants with strong background in one of the following areas: (1) Statistical Data Science and AI, including network data analysis and high-dimensional statistics (https://apply.interfolio.com/69165); (2) Statistical Climatology, with expertise in statistical analysis of climate model output data, in particular regional climate models, and in physical systems (https://apply.interfolio.com/69167); (3) Statistics for Public Health, including smart health data analysis, personalized medicine, and disease mapping (https://apply.interfolio.com/69168).
KAUST Ph.D. student receives environmetrics best poster award 1 min read · Tue, Sep 24 2019 News Spotlight Environmental Statistics Ghulam Qadir, a third-year Ph.D. student in KAUST Associate Professor Ying Sun's Environmental Statistics research group, recently received a best poster award from the Italian Environmetrics Society (GRASPA) and the International Environmetrics Society (TIES) at the GRASPA 2019 conference held from July 15 to 16 in Pescara, Italy.
Honing in on hotspots in spatial data 1 min read · Sun, Sep 15 2019 News statistics Environmental Statistics More accurate detection of hotspot clusters provides new insights into the behavior of air pollution.
Statistics plot pollution to inform policy 1 min read · Sun, Aug 18 2019 News Environmental Statistics climate science pollution The spatial variation in different air pollution components helps identify possible targets for pollution control.
Taking aim at outliers 1 min read · Sun, May 5 2019 News statistics Environmental Statistics Automatic detection of uncharacteristic data sequences could change the way data is processed and analyzed.
Clustering helps unlock secrets of the human brain 1 min read · Sun, Mar 31 2019 News statistics brain science environmental science The latest statistical methods from research on complex high-dimensional environmental data also yield powerful tools for interpreting brain activity.
Postdoc Carolina Euan received Sylvia Esterby Presentation Award from TIES 2 min read · Tue, Jan 8 2019 News award statistics Carolina Euán, a postdoctoral fellow in KAUST Associate Professor Ying Sun's Environmental Statistics research group, recently received the Sylvia Esterby Presentation Award from the International Environmentrics Society (TIES) at the 28th Annual TIES Conference 2018 held from July 16 to 21, 2018, in Guanajuato, Mexico. Euán won the award for her talk entitled "Bernoulli Vector Autoregressive Model with Applications to Spatio-temporal Drought Events in Mexico."
Chasing spatial patterns 1 min read · Sun, Dec 2 2018 News climate science A more accurate way of resolving spatial patterns in weather could lead to better predictions of climate change.
New stats apps show a virtual reality 1 min read · Mon, Nov 5 2018 News virtual reality statistics Harnessing the power of virtual reality will help to visualize data and improve statistical models.
Making collective sense of brainwaves 1 min read · Wed, Oct 31 2018 News neuroscience data A new statistical tool for collectively analyzing large sets of brainwaves promises to accelerate neurofunctional research.
Second year Ph.D. student to receive top statistics award 1 min read · Wed, Apr 11 2018 Awards News Spotlight Environmental Statistics statistics KAUST second year Ph.D. student Yuxiao Li has been selected to receive a Student Paper Award from the American Statistical Association (ASA) for his paper entitled "Efficient Estimation of Non-stationary Spatial Covariance Functions with Application to High-resolution Climate Model Emulation."
Ph.D. Student Yuxiao Li won the ENVR student paper award 2 min read · Wed, Apr 11 2018 News student award statistics KAUST second year Ph.D. student Yuxiao Li has been selected to receive a Student Paper Award from the American Statistical Association (ASA) for his paper entitled "Efficient Estimation of Non-stationary Spatial Covariance Functions with Application to High-resolution Climate Model Emulation."
Students shine on the statistics stage 2 min read · Mon, Apr 2 2018 News Spotlight Statistics of extremes Environmental Statistics spatial statistics KAUST Ph.D. alumna Sabrina Vettori and Ph.D. student Yuxiao Li have been selected by the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric Society to receive a Distinguished Student Paper Award at the 2018 ENAR Spring Meeting.
Ph.D. Student Yuxiao Li won the ENAR Distinguished Student Paper Award 1 min read · Mon, Apr 2 2018 News student award statistics KAUST Ph.D. student Yuxiao Li has been selected by the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric Society to receive a Distinguished Student Paper Award at the 2018 ENAR Spring Meeting.
Student Focus: Wanfang Chen and Yuxiao Li 1 min read · Sun, Mar 18 2018 News Spotlight student focus Married couple Wanfang Chen and Yuxiao Li came to KAUST in August 2016 to pursue their Ph.D. studies in the field of statistics. Both students are based in the University's Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science & Engineering division—Chen under the supervision of Distinguished Professor Marc Genton and Li under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun. Prior to joining KAUST, both Chen and Li obtained their undergraduate degrees in mathematics at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). Chen completed her master's degree in econometrics at Xiamen University (XMU), China, while Li
Making data more accessible 1 min read · Sun, Feb 11 2018 Awards News Spotlight statistics Ying Sun is a multi-award-winning statistician who is inspired by the value of statistics in solving real-world problems.
Student Focus: Gaurav Agarwal 1 min read · Thu, Feb 1 2018 News Spotlight student focus Gaurav Agarwal joined KAUST in the fall of 2016 as a statistics Ph.D. student in the Environmental Statistics Group under the supervision of Professor Ying Sun. Before joining KAUST, Agarwal completed a bachelor's degree in statistics from Hindu College, Delhi, and a master's degree in statistics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.
Revealing hidden relationships in data 1 min read · Sun, Jan 28 2018 News statistics weather A method to visualize hidden statistical structure helps make sense of environmental data.
Ph.D. Student Gaurav Agarwal received an Honorable Mention from ENVR Student Paper Competition 1 min read · Wed, Jan 17 2018 News student award statistics Environmental Statistics Ph.D. student Gaurav Agarwal received an Honorable Mention from ENVR student paper competition for his paper entitled "Quantile function modeling with application to salinity tolerance analysis in plant data."
One bad apple can spoil a robot swarm 1 min read · Mon, Jan 1 2018 News computing statistics engineering Coordinated robot swarms can achieve amazing feats, but even a single faulty unit can have serious consequences.
